India and Finland having diplomatic relations for 75 years now, have a significant cooperation in education and skilling at various levels. The two countries have signed a Migration & Mobility Partnership Agreement in December 2022, under which discussions are ongoing for mobility of trained manpower from India. Turning the ongoing collaboration and cooperation in education and vocational education training into a comprehensive partnership now has a steering framework at the highest level.
The two countries held the first India-Finland High Level Dialogue virtually on Jan 31, which was co-chaired by K. Sanjay Murthy, Secretary, Dept. of Higher Education, Ministry of Education with his Finnish counterpart Anita Lehikoinen, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Education and Culture (Finland).
Both sides held comprehensive discussions on respective policies in School Education, Vocational Education and Higher Education, and also explored opportunities of further deepening ties in these areas. They have also called for more concrete proposals and action plans in order to promote a richer collaboration. A joint statement was released on areas of mutual interest such as early to senior secondary education, higher education, student mobility and skill development.
The two sides showed special interest in collaborating on capacity building of teachers particularly STEM educators and leveraging digital technology in various areas of education. Research collaborations were another area of common interest, especially in areas of new and emerging technologies, AI, Quantum Tech, sustainability, climate change, The Indian side also briefed upon new regulations brought in for internationalization of higher education under NEP 2020.
In the field of school education National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) has signed a 5-year MoU with the Finnish National Agency of Education (EDUFI) in March 2022 with the objective to promote educational cooperation through sharing of information and content in areas of mutual interest. In higher education the two sides have active collaboration under various ongoing joint initiatives like Finnish Indian Consortium for Research and Education (FICORE), Global Innovation Network for Teaching and Learning (GINTL) , Scheme Promotion of Academic and Research Collaboration (SPARC) and Global Initiative of Academic Network (GIAN) Both sides have agreed to deepen such collaboration in academic research. Both sides agreed to also explore the possibility of an overarching MoU on cooperation in various sectors of education.
